Friday, September 30, 2011

How has so much time past since my last post? Oy, it's been forever! Life has been littered with trips lately. Two weeks ago I was heading to Baltimore to facilitate a program at Johns Hopkins. A week ago I heading up to north Jersey to visit a campus for some assessment. It seems like I've been on the road a lot lately. Luckily October is a bit quieter!

Anywho, for a brief recap of the glamorous (ha!) life I lead:

Two batches of pasta sauce made, with some ending up in the freezer for a cold winter's day.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

This past weekend was a busy one! The retreat we go on with students was rescheduled to this past Friday to Saturday due to Hurricane Irene in August. We left on Friday afternoon, had programming on Friday night and until 3:30 on Saturday and then headed back to campus. I'm grateful that early on Saturday morning I was able to shuffle down to their creek and take a few photos, including this one of the dam. The water was a bit higher than normal but based on the mud dried to the dock, had receded quite a bit from earlier! Saturday night, the manfriend and I had dinner at my local diner and just relaxed. Good food, good company, needed couch time. What more can girl ask for?

Sunday morning I was off to northeast PA and the Lehigh Valley Wine Trail with my friend Laurel. As you might recall, I've been a number of times before. This time we visited places we haven't gone to before: Amore, Big Creek and Franklin Hill. We also went back to Galen Glen, one of my favorites for their sweeping views and yummy wines. It was the wine trail's Harvest Weekend and every place was welcoming and had additional tasty treats. I ended up coming home with... ahem.... eight bottles of wine. Yep, that should hold me for a little while. One bottle did get consumed the very next night though. Monday was my anniversary with the manfriend and we went out to dinner at Branzino's, a BYO in Philly. We had a lovely time and he was so kind to show up with a HUGE bouquet of flowers for me. I now have two vases of blooms gracing my home. Yep, sweet manfriend, flowers, wine and pasta - I'm a lucky girl. I also got my first Birchbox on Monday. A little box of cosmetic samples and a cute bracelet to offer some fun to my September. I learned about them in August and signed up pretty fast. I figured for $10, I can lose. If it's not great, I could always cancel after one month. Well, I'm pretty happy and plan to keep them for a while....Last night, I finally did a little rearranging in my bedroom and found a place for my necklace frame. It replaced a photo which was right above my dresser. I put a few pairs of earrings on the wire too and have to say I'm quite pleased!

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

My spray paint arts and crafts project? You want to know more? Well, I finished it this past week and am kind of loving it!

I took this old frame (with my not so pretty senior class photo from HS in it!) and rehabbed it a bit. Some sanding + priming + sage spray paint + hooks + wire = a new home for some of my necklaces! Because yes, necklaces deserve a happy place to hang (out) too. I put it on the wall but don't think it has quite found it's permanent home yet. Yes, there is some shifting and spackling in my future. But oh how happy I'll be!

Monday, September 12, 2011

Yesterday was big old historical day.Ten years.Ten years have passed since the world kind of split open and changed forever.Oh, life is so very different now.Some people lost family members suddenly, horribly and often without the ability to say goodbye.My country created a whole new agency and started a couple of wars.We carry less when we fly and take off our shoes for security.

My own life has changed too.I’ve lived in three places since then.I’ve loved and had my heart broken.I’ve made new friends and celebrated milestones with the old ones.I’ve fallen back in love.I’ve made a home for myself in Philly.And I’ve connected to all of you….

I listened to some of the stories on NPR over the last week.I’ve gotten teary.I’ve remembered where I was that day and the people that I was with when all seemed to change.But most importantly, I’ve told those I love – yet again – how much I love them.How important they are to my life.How much richer my world is for having them in it.

That is my shiny, good legacy for September 11th.We shouldn’t take life or the people we share it with for granted.We should celebrate them daily.Because you never know.And having your last words be “I love you” is so much better than anything else.